Seekers of the Ashen Crown -SV

We first meet our heroes in the evening, tearing down after their show. While our group is known for doing odd jobs and such for pay, we are also a traveling circus troupe; putting our unique set of skills to other uses in between adventures. While cleaning up, a messenger brought us a request for a meeting with the foreman of the local foundry. The next day, we head down to the lower level, and head to the watering hole, and start the adventure off with a round of ale! Upon meeting the gruff foreman and his much more accommodating hobgoblin companion, the group sets off into some nearby caves to get rid of a cruthic infestation that has been killing off the workers. Hints were dropped that magic might be at work in the area, and that there were also ancient goblin ruins thought to be nearby.

While adventuring into the caves, the group ended up traversing through those very ancient ruins, encountering several powerful magical enemies, and finding some ancient treasures. Venturing forward, we came upon the tomb of Ashura, a legendary goblin hero. After honoring the hero at his place of rest, the party was challenged to fight him for a reward. Upon defeat, the party obtained Ashura’s sword, a mighty magical weapon, capable of taking the shape of several weapons. The weapon seems to be a single piece of a greater whole. After defeating Ashura, the party continued deeper into the ruins, discovering the lair of the cruthics, and finally rid the area of the infestation.

After collecting our reward back at the foundry, we shared with the hobgoblin cleric the fact that we did in fact find the goblin ruins; he seemed very excited to send explorers and colleagues down there since this was a very important discovery for his church. The party decided to keep our finding of the sword a secret for now, until we knew what we were dealing with and who could or couldn’t be trusted. We did casually inquire about more goblin ruins, thinking we might be able to find some more pieces to what seemed to be a powerful magical puzzle. At first we weren’t given much information. Later though, after realizing we forgot to give the cleric the keys we found from the ruins, and thinking he might find them useful, the party went to his church and sought him out.while we were there, the cleric mentioned that according to legend, Ashura was buried with his sword, which was a piece of a magical crown that was VERY important in goblin legend. We denied any awareness of the sword, still unsure of who to trust. He did suggest if they were interested, to go meet with professor Nifrit at the local university, as she was knowledgeable on goblin legend and artifacts. It was getting late, so the group decided to go home and rest and hit her up in the morning.

The next day, we head off to meet with the professor, have a little laugh at the fact that the receptionist is male, and then meet with professor Nifrit. We collectively decide to trust her, and even show her the sword. Nifrit fills us in on legend of the Ashen Crown (someone else is gonna have to help here cause I don’t remember). The group asks her if she knows where any other locations of tombs or other goblin ruins are so we can seek out more parts of the crown. She asks us to return in 2 days so she can research. The group goes home and decide to put on a show to pass the time and maybe make some money (which covered only the cost of our drinks at the foundry. Dangit). After the show, a member of the King’s Citadel came banging on the door. He was there to summon the troupe to the citadel’s HQ the next day, and it was clear we didn’t have a choice. This of course led to all sorts of suppositions to what was going on. Was the group in trouble? About to be arrested? Or worse? Was ‘the man’ after the sword? What was going on?

The next morning, Nit shrunk the sword into the shape of a shurken and hid it in her clothes for safe keeping, and the group ventured off to see what the citadel wanted. Everyone was feeling cautious and maybe a bit paranoid, but who could blame them. We were a little late thanks to the trams, but we got to headquarters. We were immediately lead to a room to meet with the main commander guy (sorry, I don’t remember guys), and were told immediately not to worry, that we were not in any trouble. We had actually been summoned to be offered a job working secretly for the citadel. We were informed that the citadel know we had the sword, and they wanted our help in finding the remaining parts of the crown. No more info was given until the group would swear an oath, and we were left alone to decide. The group came to the conclusion that we were planning on seeking out the crown anyway, and it would probably be more profitable to do so while “employed” by a militia, than as free agents. We also got the feeling that we REALLY didn’t have a lot of choice in the matter (especially once discovering that we were locked in the meeting room). We agreed to work for the citadel, and the commander swore us in. once we took the oath, the commander gave us some more background.

It seems many groups of goblins were trying to find the crown. Whichever group found the crown would be a strong political force (and maybe rule over all the goblins? –I don’t remember). The citadel wanted us to find a group of goblins known as the Kech Volaar, aka the “Word Bearers,” that were seeking the pieces of the crown, and aid them in doing so. But without making it known we were working for the citadel; this was stressed VERY strongly. There was another goblin group known as the Kech Shaarat, or the “Bladebearers,” also looking for the crown, the citadel did not want this group to have the crown. Avesta strongly got the feeling that the citadel wanted us to help the weaker, less aggressive group get the crown so that once they had it, either the citadel could take it from them, or at least have a better chance against them in a war or in forming alliances etc. It was clearly some sort of political ploy. After discussing some sort of pay etc, the group asked if they were still allowed to meet with the professor, and gain information. We were.

TO BE CONTINUED

Guest narration by Hampy:
ok, so, when you last left our heroes, they had just agreed to do that thing for that police-type guy. then we go meet up with professor nifrit, as planned, and we meet this lady (danae?) who’s there with her servant, janus (and marlin made fun of his name… probably why there was a confrontation later – but i’m getting ahead of myself).

she was a noble elf woman and was totally soft-spoken and eloquent (no really, christ talked in girl-voice and it was adorbs) and she just said she was interested in history and nifrit had gotten a good vibe, i guess, cuz she said “it’s cool, guys”. she offered to buy the sword off us for, like, a million (or 3k) gold but we turned her down. she graciously thanked us for her time, and oh by the way, anastriana asks, would you ever, like, try to take these artifacts by force? and the danae says “no, of course not.” and for some reason, we all believed her? idk, man.

so then, danae leaves, nifrit tells us more history crap and we all go home. where we later receive a box from nifrit (no traps, don’t worry) with a key, and a letter saying “danae is not who she seems. i fucked up; sorry. there’s a hidden compartment in my A-partment (see what i did? COM-partment/A-partment? anyway) with some more info and stuff, in case something terrible should happen to me before i see you again” (totally NOT foreshadowing).

so we go to nifrit’s apartment, and there’s no nifrit. “danae” is there, but her image is “flickering” and i think anastriana (or maybe you, v) realize that her image is a disguise. and she says something (still in christ’s soft-spoken woman-voice) like, “welcome to the thunderdome, bitches.” ok, it was really like something friendlier… but creepy, cuz she’s all wild-eyed, flickering, and there’s no nifrit… i think the place has been ransacked too.

anyway, i wanted to diplomacy her, but of course (OF COURSE!) nilramus wanted to charge her. and he had the highest initiative.

ok, so then battle ensues (there are some zombies and crap who were hidden up in that bitch) and we won. duh.

we get up in the hidden compartment, and it says, like, “Danae is Demise”. like, Demise is her real name or something. and it turns out we didn’t just kill Danae/Demise, we killed her minion who was disguised as her or something. also, in the hidden compartment note (i think… or somehow else we find out) that Danae/Demise is part of some freaky bad-guy group (don’t have my notes, so i forget who they are) and now THEY’RE after the ashen crown AND know that we have a piece… and then there’s like, a book or something which has everything we could ever want to know about the history of the ashen crown (so we can consult that any time)… and then… i think we go back to our vacation rental (as i like to call it) to rest up before we meet back with police chief dude the next day, to get supplies and head off on our adventure.

A blog for your campaign

While the wiki is great for organizing your campaign world, it’s not the best way to chronicle your adventures. For that purpose, you need a blog!

The Adventure Log will allow you to chronologically order the happenings of your campaign. It serves as the record of what has passed. After each gaming session, come to the Adventure Log and write up what happened. In time, it will grow into a great story!

Best of all, each Adventure Log post is also a wiki page! You can link back and forth with your wiki, characters, and so forth as you wish.

One final tip: Before you jump in and try to write up the entire history for your campaign, take a deep breath. Rather than spending days writing and getting exhausted, I would suggest writing a quick “Story So Far” with only a summary. Then, get back to gaming! Grow your Adventure Log over time, rather than all at once.